Tidy 28 December 2009
I am tidying up, a mania for order and neatness has over come me and now everything has a place and everything is in its place, I hope! I like order but as soon as I turn my back entropy works its way and disorder starts to creep in and before you know everything is back to one glorious mess.
I heave boxes of old newspaper cuttings out and into the green bin, its a feeling of relief after all if I have not looked at them for several years I am unlikely to to suddenly want to go through them, am I? Suddenly I have a vision of space, space to put things, not cramped and full of things but space and everything filed and in its place, wonderful!
Mary wants a newspaper cutting for her fellow book group member, Joyce, I thought I had too efficiently put them all in the green bin, I get them all out bit no cutting, where can it be? Its about an old columnist in the Yorkshire Post. We scratch out heads and ponder this deep and puzzling matter, Oh where can it be? In the newspaper on the table literally in front of our noses! Typical!
I put some old books that I will never read on to Amazon to sell. Is it a sign, or maturity, of growing old to realise that there are books out there that you will never, never ever read? All these people selling books for 1 penny, thousands of them. Its the £2.75p postage that the live on. But erotic dots can go for £4, the nearest second hand copy is £10 and some chancer is wanting £39 for a new copy.
The cats don’t really approve of all this moving around, disturbing them, they have important thoughts to think, things to do. I feed them absent mindedly, but I can see that they are still pining for that delicious German cat food. Poor things perhaps they will get some more next Christmas. I give them an new clean bowl, are they pleased? Not a bit mournful looks and pitiful wails, thats what I get.
I put on a pheasant small but solid and tough looking and peel some garlic and leave it to simmer in the slow cooker for seven hours, it smells delicious. I make a salad avocado, tomato, red pepper all contrasting gayly with the green olives. I do some rice too, the pheasant meet is good but I thinks its better cooking the veg along with it. The next pheasant is rather large perhaps I can make it last two days, we shall see.
The snow is melting some small stubborn patches still linger, but most of it has gone, the weather man looking serious warns us not to get complacent, more wintery weather is on its way hurrah, just in time for New Year.
We watch the The Belles of St Trinians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belles_of_St_Trinian%27s Utterly delightful, I manage to beat Mary at Scrabble, just for once!
Postcards
Pleasurewood Hills, American Theme park, Suffolk, England
Being very well looked after, English B&Bs
Sea Life Centre lovely fish
Bamforth Merry message series: We’ll be dropping in one of those days
Niagara falls, Gough’s cave, Cheddar, Avon, England
Obituary: David Taylor: Labour MP for Leicestershire North West
In April the Labour MP David Taylor was seventh in a newspaper poll of 592 MPs ranking each in terms of who gave the best value for money. The Sunday Telegraph reported his attendance rate at the House of Commons as 87 per cent in the year 2007-2008, during which time he had spoken at 225 debates and tabled 197 written questions.
“It’s nice to be named as one of the good guys,” said Taylor, the MP for Leicestershire North West. His expenses for the year were £154,277. Seventy-five per cent of this sum was for his staff and office. “Classifying everything as expenses can be misleading,” Taylor said. “This includes providing offices in Coalville and Westminster and employing staff to help me to run them. I simply couldn’t cope single-handedly with the growing and massive workload of casework, correspondence and campaigns.”
Yet, within a month Taylor was apologising to his constituents for displaying a “lack of judgment” over claims between 2004 and 2008 for a second home. These included £995 for a chair (officials deemed the original claim of £1,500 too expensive). Taylor admitted that a claim of £347 for a footstool — also deemed extravagant — had been an error of judgment. However, he said that the principal share of the £78,762 in claims he had made over four years was for mortgage interest repayments, utility bills and council tax.
Parliamentary officials had refused to pay £883 for removal fees when he sold his one-bedroom flat in Lambeth for a two-bedroom flat nearer Westminster. When it emerged that one of Taylor’s daughters had rented a room in the flat for £250 a month, he admitted that the sum was below the going rate, but that parliamentary officials had informed him that it was not uncommon for family members to share the accommodation of MPs.
“I’d like to think I have been a hard-working and open MP during my 12 years as representative for North West Leicestershire and I deeply regret if some people will now think differently of me,” he said. “This has rested heavily on my conscience,” he declared as he went into the details of his second-home expenses.Taylor paid back £8,003 and promised to return more before standing down at the next general election.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6968988.ece
Letters:
Guardian:
Mark Lynas’s article (How do I know China wrecked climate deal? I was in the room, 23 December) contrasted vividly with the views on the opposite page from experts. In my Council of Europe role, I held talks in Washington and Beijing, speaking to Premier Wen the day after his discussions with Obama, asking him to heed Gordon Brown’s call to attend Copenhagen. All parties were disappointed there wasn’t a legal agreement. But there wasn’t one at Kyoto either.
However, Lynas’s comments will sour future COP discussions to implement the necessary measures to limit the increase in global temperature to 2C. We require a more objective assessment of the Copenhagen accord, especially the relationship between the world’s two major polluters – China and the US.
At Copenhagen the US climate change special envoy Todd Stern said emissions weren’t about “morality or politics”, they were “just maths”, with China projected to emit 60% more CO2 than the US by 2030. But Stern ignored the more transparent measure of pollution per capita; the US emits 20 tonnes per person every year, compared to China’s six tonnes.
President Obama’s Copenhagen speech was also clearly critical of China. Moreover, he described a period of “two decades of talking and no action”. That might have been true in America, which refused to sign up to Kyoto, but not in the case of China or Europe, which followed a lot of that protocol’s policies. The challenge for all parties is now to stop pointing fingers and focus on turning the accord at Bonn and Mexico into the global climate change agreement we desperately need.
John Prescott
Council of Europe climate change rapporteur
• The dynamics of the select group of countries negotiating the Copenhagen accord is only part of the story. I was in the G77 plus China group meeting, advising a delegation, of which more than half the 120 countries complained that they had not seen any text from this group. We left to attend the plenary to obtain the text, only to see Obama on the TV screens outside the room telling us that the deal was done. People were astonished and furious. The Danish failure to explain the process of making decisions and Obama’s press conference did untold damage to future negotiations. It wasn’t all China’s fault. The test of success of the accord and any future treaty is simple. Solving climate change requires keeping fossil carbon out of the atmosphere. With current technology that means keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Will the Copenhagen accord dissuade anyone from investing in developing a new oilfield or coal mine? No. What should properly be called the Copenhagen discord was a failure.
Dr Simon Lewis
Earth and Biosphere Institute, University of Leeds
• In the west we have grown familiar with the idea that the Bible has provided the pretext for humans to exploit resources at the expense of all other life. Lynas’s account of the collapse of the Copenhagen talks shows us that these same attitudes are as entrenched in Chinese culture. This shows that cultural attitudes to the exploitation of resources build upon a more fundamental truth about humankind than the religious and philosophical systems that codified them.
Considering our species from an ecological perspective shows that humans have prospered on the planet because they are a mammalian weed forever invading and changing habitats before moving on to exploit new resources. Cultural structures are a thin veneer upon this ecological truth. Although this truth is uncomfortable, its recognition will be necessary before we can find ways to live within the bounds of finite planetary resources and maintain the ecological systems that support us.
The undignified and unproductive politics that Copenhagen exemplified is fundamentally flawed, since we were unable to bring to it a simple recognition of the ecological nature of humankind. Let’s make 2010 the year when humans get real about their common – and rather frightening – ecological nature and not hide from this behind the divisions wrought by religious and political systems.
Professor Graham Martin
University of Birmingham
• Mark Lynas seems to skim over a fundamental issue: justice. He points out that China’s massive growth depends on cheap coal, but fails to note that other nations have depended on coal to achieve huge global power. The UK used coal to help it dominate the world, and its current wealth is due to this. With no real reparations available, it is not difficult to understand why China is scared that a climate deal will prevent it from growing to be in the UK’s situation. The problem is more with the concept of unlimited economic growth. This and environmental sustainability cannot go hand in hand. To find these kinds of critiques you have to look outside the Bella Centre, at the protesters in the streets. It seems once again these views are not being heard.
Guy Mitchell
Leeds
• George Monbiot (Comment, 22 December) suggests millions of “good, liberal … people” should have taken to the streets over Copenhagen. Why? In the hope that this would change the minds of the politicians? Why not do it the simpler way and change the politicians? For those who say “it won’t make a difference” to join a political party, why might they suppose taking part in some street theatre will do more? The number of people actively involved in our political parties is tiny. This benefits the industry-funded right. In many places the right wins by default because there are not enough decent liberal people knocking on doors and distributing the literature putting the other side, or choosing decent candidates who understand global warming and other such issues, or being such candidates.
Matthew Huntbach
London
Recent events in the Channel tunnel reflect very badly on many parties (Report, 21 December). Surely Eurostar could have learned from a similar occurrence in 2003 when a train broke down in the tunnel? It appears not. Worse still was the time that Eurotunnel took to evacuate the passengers. A reported 17 hours, with no light, food, water or explanation is hardly the type of response that customers find acceptable. Trains are supposed to be able to pull each other out of the tunnel, and there are rescue diesel locomotives at each end. So why was a rescue diesel seen hooked up to a Eurostar train at St Pancras? Why did it not take the Eurostar to Ashford, where passengers could have taken another train to London while the diesel went back for another Eurostar? One wonders who, if anyone, was in charge?
Eurotunnel is required to have a rescue plan approved by the intergovernmental commission and its safety authority. These bodies should undertake an urgent investigation as to why the rescue procedures went so wrong, and ensure that such a long rescue period never happens again.
As for Eurostar, the damage to the company’s reputation caused not only by its inability to deal with the wrong kind of snow but its appalling communications failures with passengers, will haunt it for years. Ironically, from next year, passenger services become open to any operators; let us hope that others come and try, using trains that work.
Tony Berkeley
Lab, House of Lords
I note with interest that the European court of human rights has ruled against politicians being forced to declare allegiance to a particular ethnic group in order to stand for parliament (Bosnia’s bar on minorities in parliament ruled illegal, 23 December). I wonder what view the court would take on the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which gives greater voting rights in the assembly to those who designate themselves as either unionist or nationalist, as opposed to those who seek to build a united community.
David Ford MLA
Leader, Alliance party, Stormont
• Jill Morley suggests moving Christmas celebrations to the summer solstice (Letters, 24 December). The Persian new year and birth date of Zarathushtra has been celebrated by the Zoroastrians on 21 March, the spring equinox, for over three millennia. Since Christianity has borrowed heavily from the ideas of Zarathushtra, taking on one more wouldn’t be much of a problem.
DR Sethna
Loughborough, Leicestershire
• So archaeologists have found a grotto in Nazareth that was used by Jews to hide from Roman soldiers (Report, 22 December). The crucial question is whether it was used by the People’s Liberation Front of Judea or the Judean People’s Front.
Ivor Morgan
Lincoln
• I was intrigued by the information in your front page story (Marriage is becoming preserve of middle classes, Tories claim, 23 December) that 480,285 people were married in 1972. I am surprised that marriages involving odd numbers of people were permitted as early as this. The 70s were obviously more progressive than most people recall.
Simon Dennis
London
• Have the Italians lost all sense of what is fitting? Surely it would make more sense to throw a model cathedral at the Pope and for a woman to jump on to Silvio Berlusconi (Report, 14 December)?
Steven Wroe
Huddersfield
• After the shoe bomber, we all had to take off our shoes at airport security. After the underwear bomber will we have to take off our underwear?
Owen Wells
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Barry Sheerman has got the wrong end of the stick over the appointment of the chair of Ofqual (MP accuses Balls of ignoring vetting rules, 19 December). I told parliament on 24 March that there would not be a pre-appointment hearing for Kathleen Tattersall – but that there would be for new candidates for that post in future. The then schools minister Jim Knight also made this clear in a letter to Barry on 12 February. This was because Kathleen had already been in post since April 2008. She was appointed following the normal public appointments process and before the pre-appointment hearings by select committees had been introduced. Not having a pre-appointment hearing when she was already in post seemed the right decision.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP
I was interested to read Martin O’Neill’s comments on Mark Hughes’s recent dismissal after just 18 months as manager of Manchester City: “In any other industry, you would be given the time to do the job, you really would. But football is not like any other industry” (O’Neill says City’s dismissal of Hughes was crazy, Sport, 23 December).
It is interesting to note that a recent report by Hoggett-Bowers into the role of NHS CEOs indicated that they “have a shorter shelf life than Premiership football managers”. In the same report David Nicholson (the NHS chief executive) is quoted as saying: “We find it very difficult to recruit people who want to be chief executives – the average time they spend in post is just 700 days”.
Having been an NHS chief executive (CE) myself I did get to know some of the local Premiership managers quite well, but apart from our shared fragility in office I saw little in common between our jobs. Perhaps I should reassess this in the light of the comments of Gary Cook, CE of Manchester City, earlier this week when he referred to targets, trajectories and scenario planning for the club – language that is daily currency for NHS CEs. At the same time NHS hospital trusts are now participating in league tables – although not yet in four divisions.
I doubt whether it is unique to football management for successor CEs/managers to be lined up while the current incumbents are still in post – while the ethics may be debatable, organisations in all sectors want to ensure continuity of leadership wherever possible.
David Whitney
Hathersage, Derbyshire
The Guardian has recently reported a number of cases of photographers being harassed by the police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Report, 12 December). It seems to be catching on.
On a train between York and Sheffield last week an announcement warned that taking photographs contravened a certain bylaw. I sought out the “train manager” and asked what the bylaw was. The gist of his answer was, “Take no notice, I made it all up. A woman came to me complaining that someone in her carriage was taking photographs of people, including children, and so I made the announcement.”
The trouble is that an atmosphere is being created. The woman in the ticket office at my destination, where I asked for a comment form, said she thought it was illegal to take photographs on a train. The man across the aisle from me on the train wasn’t surprised at the announcement: “That’s the EU for you,” he said.
Andrew Hornung
Church Enstone, Oxfordshire
Independent:
With 2009 approaching its end, it seems appropriate to look back at the amazing abundance of anniversaries this year. Five centuries ago (1509), Henry VIII became king. And it is two and a half centuries since Kew Gardens began, and the births of William Wilberforce, who ended the British slave trade, and Robert Burns whose love was “like a red, red rose”.
Two centuries back (1809), another poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was born; two statesmen, W E Gladstone and Abraham Lincoln and, of course, Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species was published a century and a half ago.
On the high street, Sainsbury’s celebrates 140 years and Marks & Spencer 125. Sadly, Woolworths closed 100 years after the opening of its first British store in Liverpool. One hundred and twenty years ago, two men were born whose personas included black moustaches: Charlie Chaplin and Hitler. It is 90 years since the Treaty of Versailles was signed, 70 since the Second World War began and 65 since D-Day was launched.
This year is the centenary of Louis Bleriot’s first aeroplane flight across the Channel and 40 years since man landed on the moon. Sixty years ago, legal aid began; George Orwell’s last book, 1984, was published and (of no relevance except to me and close family) I was born.
Communism was established in China and Cuba 60 and 50 years ago respectively. Fifty years ago, music legend Buddy Holly died in a plane crash and 40 years back the Beatles played their last concert on a blustery rooftop in central London.
Thirty years ago, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister was elected, and it is 20 years since Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1992, Francis Fukuyama wrote his book, The End of History and the Last Man. But history still has stings in its tail.
Andrew Fuller
London SE12
Our future must lie in renewables
Although the failure at Copenhagen may have raised questions about nuclear power (“Low carbon price threatens investment crucial to meet UK green goals”, 22 December), there is huge potential in renewables.
Research reviewed in the November issue of Scientific American shows renewables can meet 100 per cent of the world’s energy needs (not just electricity) and that it is technically feasible to do it by 2030. This is in line with other reports showing how to decarbonise the world’s economies via renewables and improvements in efficiency.
For example, the US National Academy of Sciences reported this year that wind power could supply more than 40 times present worldwide consumption of electricity and more than five times total global use of energy in all forms.
Another report, from the European Environment Agency, shows that the “economically competitive potential” of wind-power in Europe is three times projected demand for electricity in 2020 and seven times projected demand in 2030. Offshore wind-power alone could meet between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of projected European demand for electricity in 2020, and about 80 per cent of projected demand in 2030.
A report from the Tyndall Centre shows that photovoltaics could generate about 266 TWh in the UK, 66 per cent of the UK’s present electricity demand. The supposed problem of variability in wind-power is much less of an issue than is sometimes suggested. There is a range of techniques available for matching variable supplies with constantly varying demands.
A recent report, Nuclear Subsidies, from the Energy Fair group, shows how the real cost of nuclear power is disguised by several subsidies. Without those subsidies, nuclear power would not begin to compete with renewables, regardless of the price of CO2 emissions.
Dr Gerry Wolff
Energy Fair, Menai Bridge, Anglesey
I am troubled by apocalyptic visions as a result of our inability to deal collectively with climate change, culminating in the tragic failure at Copenhagen. What has become abundantly clear is that the human instinct of self-interest transcends reason. And that law-of-the-jungle mentality will ultimately lead to our extinction.
The apocalyptic visions to which I refer are not those related to the terrifying physical effects of global warming, floods, famines, storms, droughts. These will all come in time but probably long after our pitiful, shameful generation has been and gone. Instead, I refer to the equally terrifying changes that will be imposed on us far sooner.
Sooner or later, the truth, scale and severity of the climate chaos that will be unleashed on us will be irrefutable. It will by then be too late to avoid although, nevertheless, we will try; but the magnitude of the actions we would need to take will be too great to be left to nations and individuals. So they will be imposed on us.
We will have failed to exercise our freedoms and liberties with responsibility, and so we will have them removed. Since it is our rapacious demand for energy and food that drives the whole mess then all our activity that fuels that demand will be strictly limited by the state. Worse still, the states themselves will have their oversight and enforcement policies monitored by global military powers.
Of course, it will not work, and there will be mass population migrations and wars before the planet takes its ultimate revenge on our profligacy. Most people can envision those developments but do they also see the inevitable Orwellian state that will be with us far earlier?
Fraser Devlin
London SE15
If China, the US and others are unwilling to make the necessary commitments to help reduce global warming, then those who are willing to make the sacrifices should impose a carbon duty on all imports from China, US etc.
This tax could be given to those developing countries most at risk from the effects of global warming.
John Blenkinsopp
Sheffield
How to cut down the NHS legal bill
The massive legal bills incurred by the NHS in medical negligence claims reveal only part of the story; the final cost is much higher (“Scandal of lawyers’ NHS payout bills”, 15 December).
The NHS is clearly intent on fighting all negligence claims, irrespective of their merits. Not only does this result in colossal legal bills for the taxpayer, but it also forces the victims of medical negligence to go through the additional trauma of court action. This must deter many genuine claims, particularly since not all of the victims will be eligible for legal aid.
There are two alternative approaches that would offer swifter justice at a fraction of the cost. One is to establish an independent ombudsman to adjudicate, styled along the lines of the financial services ombudsman scheme.
The other is to set up a mediation scheme, following the Acas model to encourage settlement before cases reach the tribunal stage.
Nigel Wilkins
London SW7
Morally unfair way to aid recovery
Personally, I don’t want to learn from the Irish government (Hamish McRae, 16 December). Hacking huge chunks out of people’s income seems an odd way to fuel recovery. Then there is the moral unfairness of the whole thing.
Why should the people who did the least to cause the crisis pay the greatest price? Here, some cuts are obvious: Trident, pointless imperialist adventures to curry favour with US hawks, failed computer systems.
That gets us on our way to the first £100bn and gives our foreign policy a more modest moral compass. Then we could rebalance the Sheriff-of-Nottingham tax system with a little Robin-Hood redistribution.
Finally, am I naive to ask why the banks don’t repay some of the cash Gordon took from my pocket without a vote? Or isn’t that the sort of question I am meant to ask?
Alan Gibbons
Liverpool
If cheques go, then our society suffers
I have written 14 cheques over five months in circumstances where I could probably have paid by card (letters, 26 December). But, in the same period, I also wrote 10 cheques to payees who could not possibly accepted payment by card, to clubs, small charities and the like.
There are thousands of these small groups, some with local membership and support and others countrywide. These little community-interest groups are part of what makes us Britain, and if they are damaged the whole of our society is damaged.
Are we to decline into a soulless corporate state, in which the only recognised use of money is for making purchases from big businesses? Or are we destined to become a cash economy, in which people have to risk carrying large sums, and tax evasion is facilitated? The banks should think again about their social responsibility.
Adrian West
London N21
My wallet, containing my credit cards and cash/debit card, was stolen on 10 December. Stopping the cards and ordering replacements was easy because all are registered with a card protection scheme.
My replacement Egg card arrived on 14 December, my replacement Amex card on 16 December and even my replacement senior railcard on 17 December, but I am still waiting for a replacement cash/debit card from my bank.
Because I have no cash/debit card I can no longer use online banking, so I had to send a cheque to EDF, and had to go with chequebook and passport to my bank for cash. What emergency arrangements do banks intend to put in place when they withdraw cheques?
Rita Hale
London N1
Who did what and when for Dr Who
Golly, Pandora must be a young whippersnapper if she thinks Russell T Davies was the creator of Dr Who (24 December).
Admittedly, he breathed new life into the adventures of the eponymous Time Lord but, putting aside the presumption that the Doctor is the progeny of a mummy and daddy Time Lord on the planet Gallifrey, he was first brought to our attention in 1963 by several people at the BBC, including head of drama Sydney Newman, head of script department Donald Wilson, writers C E Webber and Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and producer Verity Lambert.
Ironically, 1963 was the year Russell T Davies was born.
Michael O’Hare
Northwood, Middlesex
Quick converts
Your reporter writes, “… the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that children were forced to grow up too quickly in his Christmas sermon” (26 December). Whatever he was preaching must have been strong stuff.
Ray Noyes
Cardiff
Frank failures
Why all the fuss about the coming increase in postage stamps? I have sufficient stamps from my incoming post to last until June. This year, at least 45 per cent of all envelopes received have not been franked and the stamps can be re-used. I have had 100-plus letters and cards in the past three weeks and more than 45 have unmarked stamps. This equates to £17 or £18 lost to the Post Office. Multiply by, say, 800,000 to one million households and the PO has lost about £18m. What a way to run a business.
John Sharkey
Stafford
Face-off with the law
There has been a lot of talk about the wearing of the burqa in this country. But, since it is not required by religion, and is only a personal preference, how would it be if all of us were to hide our faces? Since it appears not to be illegal, it seems possible for every man, woman, youth, yob or criminal to walk the streets legally masked. Could this be stopped by police because these new wearers are not Muslim? Would that mean one section of society being given preferential treatment over another?
J H Moffatt
Bredbury, Cheshire
Centre point
Ian Burrell writes (14 December) that Notting Hill is the “epicentre” of trendy London eating. So, all those trendy eaters are scoffing away underground, maybe at the junction of the Central and Circle lines? The word “epicentre” has a precise meaning: the point or small area directly above the focus of an earthquake or tremor. It is not just a longer way of saying “centre”. Is the old trade of sub-editor now as extinct as those of the linotype operator and the tea-lady?
C Sladen
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Shining example
Your correspondents Brian Lile and Doug Meredith (letters, 22 and 24 December), with their ears tuned to pick up broadcast items which combine the meteorological with the tautological, would have appreciated the BBC weather forecaster who promised “a good deal of sunshine during daylight hours”.
ALAN BUNTING
Harpenden, Hertfordshire
Times:
Sir, Your report (Dec 24) on the outcry that the Vatican is a step closer to moving the wartime Pope, Pius XII, to sainthood omitted to mention the meeting between the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, and the Pope on October 18, 1943, when the Pope told him he had no reason to complain about the Nazi commander in Rome.
Only two days earlier, the brutal Nazi round-up of Jews in Rome began. On that day alone more than 1,000 Jewish men, women and children were forcibly removed from their homes, herded on to trucks and sent to Auschwitz.
No reason to complain? Many non-Jewish Italians, without the protection of Papal diplomatic immunity, did more than complain. They risked their lives (some paid with their lives) to hide Jews during the nine months of Nazi occupation of Rome. There are several stories of heroism, including that of the Italian police chief who protected a group of Jews from the Gestapo who were searching for them. Also the non-Jewish nursing sister who hid several other Jews in a hospital.
The mother of my Italian companion tells of being hidden, along with her sister, by nuns in a convent who, fortunately, did not wait to be led by example. One can imagine Sir D’Arcy’s perplexity, perhaps disgust, at the Pope’s comments in the light of what was visible to all in Rome at the time.
Stephen Burstin
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Lester May wrote:
It does seem that the Vatican is picking an odd one to be a saint.
There is too much doubt and any imprimatur from Rome about this Pope will just throw into doubt even more their other thoughts on sainthood.
Surely saintehood is best kept for the clearly goodly and Godly?
Sir, Normally when Lord Mandelson says two plus two equals four, I immediately reach for the calculator, but in his recent statement regarding higher education in England he has a valid point (report, Dec 23, and letters, Dec 26).
When I retired early I found that I needed to keep my brain occupied, so at the tender age of 50 I embarked on an undergraduate course at a well-known Russell Group university. In the first week the freshers were addressed by the vice-chancellor, who began by telling us: “Of course your first year does not count towards your final degree.” This was a shock. Coming out of the hall many students were muttering why they had to take on loans and pay course tuition fees for that year when it would not be counting for anything.
The actual teaching was very good, as were the tutorials, but, and it is a big but, the actual weeks spent at university for the academic year totalled just over 20. I found the pressure of work was negligible. Even more annoying was the work ethic, which was totally lacking in many students throughout the degree course.
Deadlines were never strictly enforced. A student just had to complain that the cat had died to be given extension after extension.
Two-year courses should be implemented as soon as possible. The commonly heard bleat that students will not get the full university experience is nonsense in today’s financial climate. Two years’ intensive study with 33 per cent less fees and loans will enable more students of modest means to aim at higher education.
P. Chesters
Wallasey, Wirral
Sir, Recently the University of Leeds sociology department advertised for a research officer to study “The rise and regulation of lap dancing and the place of sexual labour and consumption in the night time economy” at a salary of between £29,704 and £31,513.
Not all research is of equal value and not all research is of any value.
Nick Winstone-Cooper
Bridgend, South Wales
Redmond McDonagh wrote:
Universities exist primarily to provide employment opportunities for academics.
Everything falls neatly into place, once this simple fact is understood.
December 28, 2009 1:28 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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stanley cohen wrote:
Does this equal the study course in Klingon language at Southampton University or is that of greater use?
Sir, Allow the words of a respected African leader to complete those of Matthew Parris’s Opinion (Dec 19) and subsequent letters (Dec 21, 22 and 24). On May 1, 1961, Julius Nyerere, PM of newly independent Tanganyika, sent a detailed two-page letter to British administrators, from which I quote:
“Some administrative officers have decided to leave, and to them I would say thank you for what you have done . . . my Government, and therefore the great bulk of the people, are really in need of your help; and we will be for a long time to come . . . in a continent where so much ill-feeling and unhappiness abound . . . Could you feel happy if you had left us . . . if we then proceeded to make a mess of our trust here because we had not enough British administrators to help us?”
How many African countries have, post-independence, “made a mess”, with returns to the corruption, cruelty and violent tribalism that those earlier Britsh administrators had prevented?
Geoffrey Mills
Andover, Hants
Sir, I must confess to disappointment in the analysis of my recent sermon. Julian Baggini demonstrates a lack of awareness of the actualité of people’s lives on ordinary housing estates throughout the land if he imagines that their dire circumstances do not meet the criteria necessary for the breakdown of moral values (“Sorry, Father, thou still shalt not steal”, Opinion, Dec 23).
Nowhere does he deal with the brutal question: what should we advise people to do when all the legal, morally and socially acceptable options have been shut down to them? It is such a difficult question that we simply ignore it.
Ruth Gledhill’s regurgitation of biblical proof texts had all the finesse of a street preacher (“What about not coveting your neighbour’s goods?”, Commentary, Dec 22 ). Where was the discussion of Ambrose, Chrysostom and Aquinas, foundational Christian thinkers who grappled hard with the social consequences of Christianity’s failure to respond to Jesus’s injunction in Matthew XIX:21?
The conclusions of my sermon were not remotely original, or even derivative, but just plain copied.
Father Tim Jones
The parishes of St Lawrence and St Hilda
York
Sir, I wish to object strongly to the gross calumny from your anonymous correspondent of December 24, 1856, insulting the crossbreed of a spaniel and a poodle as “good for nought” (“House Dogs”, Letters from the Archive, Dec 24 ).
I am writing on behalf of Humphrey who is eight months old and combines the intelligence of an English dog with the savoir-faire of a French one — and his breed now proudly goes under the name of cockapoo.
I suppose it’s too late to expect an apology.
James Leek
London SW19
Sir, Hopefully the good advice from 1856 remains the same. My Dandie Dinmont sleeps in the bedroom and is on guard duty 24 hours a day (his choice). His bark is both loud and sustained.
Would he deter today’s breed of intruder? I would prefer not to find out.
J. Marber
Richmond-upon-Thames
Sir, In justifying the decision to delay the giving of evidence to the Iraq inquiry by Gordon Brown and other government ministers until after the next general election, Sir John Chilcot has stated that the hearings should not be used for political advantage (report, Dec 24 ).
In making this decision Sir John has delivered significant political advantage to Labour and denied the British electorate the information needed to fully hold the Government accountable at the election.
Robert Cleave
Bramcote, Notts
Telegraph:
SIR – I thank you and your readers for the most extraordinary response to Thomas Harding’s report (December 14) about our “wristband appeal”.
My welfare officer back in Aldershot has reported that he returned to his office last week to be confronted by a huge postbag which, though he has not yet been able to sort it all, contained cheques from your readers to the value of more than £10,000.
It is immensely humbling to know that so many people care to such a great degree about the young men and women who are fighting to bring security to Helmand.
The money donated will be used carefully for the benefit of our soldiers and their families, both now and in the years to come.
Military funerals are paid for by the Ministry of Defence, but money raised through the regimental welfare fund will be put towards additional costs such as flowers, newspaper announcements and wakes.
A good regiment is a family and cares for its own. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity your readers have shown and, on behalf of the soldiers of this battalion, I would like to offer our thanks and, from afar, our very best wishes for a happy Christmas season.
Lieutenant Colonel Toby Gray
1st Bn Coldstream Guards
Helmand, Afghanistan
Airline security
SIR – If airports used profiling techniques and spent less time stripping pensioners and children to their underpants in an attempt not to offend the very people who present the highest risk, we could get on a plane more quickly and safely.
Stuart Seear
Newlyn, Cornwall
SIR – In view of the attempted destruction of a passenger aircraft over Detroit, do the US and British governments still believe that sending soldiers to Afghanistan is the best way to combat terrorism? If so, when are they going to send soldiers to Yemen?
J.F.F. Sharland
Stannington, Northumberland
Telling exchange
SIR – On a recent business trip to Taiwan, we realised we needed to change some money, so we went into a bank with two crisp £20 notes, only to be told: “We only change US dollars and strong currencies.”
Gordon Brown and his colleagues really do have a lot to answer for.
Anthony Farrar
Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex
Much improved hedges
SIR – How old, I wonder, is Jeff Martin (Letters, December 24), who criticises current farm practices on hedging.
In the 1950s, in many intensively farmed areas of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, hedges were grubbed out to save on labour. Thousands of acres were exposed, and this, apart from destroying habitats, allowed serious wind erosion in times of drought.
The mechanical hedge-cutter, hated by some, has changed all that, and good thick hedges have been re-established in most of these areas. The overall situation for wildlife has improved enormously.
Jeffrey Bowles
Mellington Hall Park, Powys
Coffee in the frying pan
SIR – My wise old African cook, Herman, would be astounded to learn that people now spend £325 on a machine to roast coffee (report, December 26).
Herman would smear a frying pan with oil, cover with beans to a depth of half an inch, and stir slowly until roasted.
This I still do, although usually without the hymns that he sang simultaneously.
Susan Harrison
Mousehole, Cornwall
What hast thou done?
SIR – With regard to your report on old phrase books (December 26), some years ago I bought an English-Russian conversation guide from a French monastery bookshop.
I have never needed to say, “Hast thou been unfaithful?” in Russian, but should the need arise I am well prepared.
Edward Spurrier
Stamford, Lincolnshire
SIR – The EUP French and English Dictionary, given to me at school, has 20 pages of phrases, among which are: “The poor wretch threw himself out of the window”; “It is better to die than to live without honour”; “These silk stockings cost her a mint of money.”
Robert Darlaston
Goostrey, Cheshire
SIR – My 1994 Estonian phrase book tells me how to say in Estonian: “I would like a large-scale map of the Isle of Wight.”
Daron Gunson
Bures, Essex
The £6 million cost of protecting Tony Blair
SIR – Isn’t it galling to know that an ex-premier holding no UK office costs Britain £6 million a year (report, December 26) just for protection? Tony Blair’s security costs Britons 10 pence per head. We were recently told that the cost of the Queen and all the Royal Family works out at 69 pence per head. Much of that expenditure is unavoidable – I’d point out to republican critics – regardless of the nature of the head of state we have.
Simon Coulter
Benalmadena, Malaga, Spain
SIR – If Mr Blair earns £18 million over two and a half years, that should bring in around £3 million a year in tax, even before the 50p tax rate comes in.
The £6 million a year on police wages will yield a further £2 million a year. So we “only” pay £1 million a year on his protection.
To see Mr Blair out of the country for substantial portions of the year, this seems exceptional value for money.
Mark Sinclair
Holme-upon-Spalding-Moor, North Yorkshire
The fox as prey to political wrangling
SIR – Hilary Benn is to campaign against Conservative proposals for a free vote on repeal of the hunting ban (report, December 26).
As Secretary of State at Defra, Mr Benn is said to base his policy on the pre-ban report produced by Lord Burns’s committee. It accepted that the fox population should be controlled, and suggested that shooting by night was the most effective method.
Lord Burns has said subsequently that control by hunting with hounds “does not equate with cruelty”. Further research commissioned by the all-party Parliamentary Middle Way Group draws attention to the difference between control of the fox population (which sees indiscriminate culling by shooting) and wildlife management (the discriminatory search and dispatch of old, sick and injured animals by scenting hounds).
For the fox to become once again a political animal, prey to any struggle for electoral advantage, is irrelevant to the realities of rural life. Mr Benn should think again before treading the path that has already led to the expenditure of 700 hours of parliamentary time on an issue that produced divisive yet ineffective legislation, leading to a waste of money and effort by the police and the courts.
Colonel J.L. Parkes
Sherborne, Dorset
Irish Times:
Unequal access to health care
Madam, – Equity is one of our core health system principles and means that care is provided on the basis of need and not on ability to pay. In 2004, a study by the Health Equity Research Group of the OECD found access to hospital care in Ireland was one of the most inequitable in the OECD. The same research found parallel private health insurance (PHI) was a major contributor to this inequity.
Around 50 per cent of the population, mainly higher and higher middle-income individuals purchase private health insurance.
According to the November OECD economic outlook for Ireland and the 2009 Commission on Taxation report, the Government spent nearly €500 million subsidising private health insurance purchase and medical expenses, commonly referred to as government tax expenditure (or tax relief for purchasers of private health insurance), but in reality a covert tax on all taxpayers. The uninsured population are helping higher-income people to pay for private health insurance.
The OECD and the commission have recommended modification of the tax relief on insurance premiums and health expenses. None the less, they did not consider the impact of such relief on equity in health care, despite indicating that the main reason for limiting this type of government expenditure in taxation terms is its fundamentally inequitable impact on taxpayers.
I wonder if the commission had been aware of the above-mentioned health research, would it not have recommended the full abolition of tax relief on private health insurance?
Given that equity is a core government health care principle, a Dáil Éireann truly concerned with its own health principles should have abolished this expenditure.
It would be more equitable and efficient if this expenditure were used on developing intensive care facilities in Crumlin Children’s Hospital, on removal of the prescription charge and reducing the need for budget cuts scheduled for public hospitals and GP services next year.
A reduction or abolition of health insurance subsidisation would represent a relatively small income burden for higher income categories of employees in the private and public sector, would not impact seriously on private health insurance purchase and could be more efficiently and equitably spent protecting frontline GP and public hospital services.
Neither the Government nor Opposition has indicated any intention to follow the recommendations from the OECD or Commission on Taxation, and the Government has now introduced a prescription charge for medical card holders, individuals on the lowest incomes and in the worst health. These same individuals are now being asked to contribute another €25 million to Government coffers through this inequitable user charge.
At some point, a genuinely principled government will have to address the inequity in access to health care generated by the financing system. Sadly, we must not hold our breaths for the current Dáil to address this issue. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN BARTON,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.
Rise in teenage pregancies
Madam, – As reported by Mark Hennessy (Opinion, December 17th) the number of pregnancies in England and Wales, already high, is rising again. The answer according to Southwark and Lambeth boroughs in London is to give contraceptive pills to 16-year-old girls and we now have the Law Reform Commission recommending that these pills should be available to 16-year-olds here (Front page, December 22nd).
This is despite the well-documented knowledge that this will have the same results as occurred in Britain. As Dr John Lalor in a letter to The Irish Times (March 29th, 2007) stated: “For 30 years I have worked as a GP in a society where the number of teenage pregnancies, the number of sexually transmitted diseases and the number of single mothers have increased exponentially. Free contraception, early sexual education and free health care have been available. My view, extraordinarily is that the British model is an absolute failure”.
Do we really wish to follow the British model, already demonstrated to have been a disaster, or will we follow the path of encouraging responsible behaviour leading to healthy relationships?
It should not be overlooked that the policies adopted in Britain are fuelled by the vast profits accruing from the sale of contraceptives and the carrying out of abortions. – Yours, etc,
MARY STEWART,
Ardeskin,
Donegal.
Religious influence in schools
Madam, – Fintan O’Toole makes the wholly unacceptable charge (Opinion, December 22nd) that Bishop Leo O’Reilly made dishonest claims in his article concerning Catholic schools on December 19th.
The bishop did nothing of the sort. He said that schools that exclude religious instruction are not neutral in their philosophy of life. They too espouse an ethos of their own. He went on to welcome the provision of such schools as providing for diversity of choice in the Irish education system.
Mr O’Toole bases his accusation of dishonesty on the clearly fallacious claim that “no one is talking about schools that exclude religious instruction”. Maybe Mr O’Toole has no interest in such schools but he shouldn’t equate himself with everyone, as he clearly doesn’t speak for parents who already send their children to such schools or parents who desire such schools for their children. Further, in recent weeks numerous correspondents with The Irish Times and in other media (in the Letters pages, online and in opinion pieces) have argued strongly for an end to Catholic patronage and the removal of religious instruction, images and practices from our schools.
How could Bishop O’Reilly deal with the future of patronage in Irish schools without addressing this issue? Rather than being dishonest, he was dealing fairly and openly with a complex situation. – Yours, etc,
Mgr JIM CASSIN,
Executive Secretary,
Bishops’ Education
Commission,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Climate change – a burning issue
Madam, – Although James Nix (December 19th) says that incinerating waste produces carbon emissions (which is quite correct), he fails to mention that incinerating the waste reduces the amount of waste sitting in landfill sites and produces electricity for us to power our homes. He also fails to mention how recycling produces emissions without producing power. So does he suggest we keep filling the fields with waste and keep burning fossil fuels for our power? – Yours, etc,
DÁIRE O’DRISCOLL,
Rathfarnham Wood,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
ECT without consent
Madam, – I have read and re-read Dr Siobhan Barry’s letter (December 14th).
In her third paragraph, she says “some mental illness requires treatment against the person’s wishes, including prescribed ECT”. She describes this as being a “human right to be given effective treatment” which right is “ethically founded” and which “all doctors are properly ethically required to protect”.
This seems to mean that psychiatrists are acting ethically in prescribing and requiring a person involuntarily to undergo ECT. It further seems to mean that not only are these psychiatrists acting ethically but that they are, in fact, ethically required to do so (ie impose ECT against the person’s wishes in relevant circumstances) in order to “protect and uphold the right to treatment”.
As a psychotherapist, I am required by professional ethics to “respect clients’ rights to self-determination and autonomy”, to “ensure that the client consents to participate at all stages of counselling and respect clients’ right to discontinue at any time”. (Code of Ethics of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
If I am reading Dr Barry’s letter accurately, how could two therapeutic professions adhere to such seemingly divergent ethical positions? And what is the legal/constitutional basis for the human right referred to in her letter? – Yours, etc,
IAN WOODS,
Castle Grove,
Swords,
Co Dublin.
Clamping in hospital car parks
Madam, – William Coleman’s dismay at seeing wheel-clampers at work in the car park of his local hospital is understandable. (December 23rd). If any activity is the antithesis of a caring establishment it is this one.
Here in the UK plans are afoot to regulate their activities. There have been many instances where they have been overzealous in immobilising vehicles and demanding excessive charges for their release. It has been reported that motorists who abandoned their cars in a pub car park because of the treacherous weather conditions returned the following morning to find their vehicles clamped.
May I take issue with Mr Coleman when he says that he sees the need for hospital parking charges. It is true that such an exercise generates a considerable sum of money for the health service, but such a practice is anathema to the very principles of caring for the sick in a developed society. It’s a tax on them, nothing more, nothing less.
Most hospitals in Scotland and Wales discontinued such charges recently and in England the health secretary Andy Burnham has promised to phase them out over the next three years. – Yours, etc,
FRANK GREANEY,
Lonsdale Road,
Formby,
Liverpool,
England.
Historic land files for the chop
Madam, – Why is the Property Registration Authority being permitted to casually shred thousands of historic land files (News, December 23rd)? At least the anti-Treaty forces had an excuse when many records were destroyed in the bombing at the Four Courts in 1922. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Public support for sex offender
Madam, – I wish to register my complete abhorrence at the behaviour in the “Listowel” case of some of my fellow Kerrymen.
The great north Kerry writer, John B Keane, demonstrated in his plays the tribal silences and judgments, especially towards women, which ruined so many lives. We, in 21st-century Ireland, had hoped that this sort of gendered judgment was a thing of the past. I grew up a few miles from Listowel and I know it to be a welcoming, warm, friendly place.
Most of its inhabitants, I am sure, stand with me in condemning the behaviour of those ignorant, biased few, who shook the hand of a convicted sex offender and, in the process, judged and demeaned his victim. A man was found guilty of a heinous crime by a jury of his peers, a young woman has been vindicated for her courageous stand; I heartily commend her for her bravery and hope she will be an inspiration to victims of rape or sexual assault to come forward. Too often these women and men remain silent.
We know from studies that a tiny percentage of victims report these crimes and an even smaller percentage proceed to trial. Part of the reason for this is the judgmental attitude towards victims that, unfortunately, remains in many parts of Ireland, rural and urban, and among all classes and genders.
Perhaps the lessons of this case will help us, as a nation, come to terms with our remaining prejudices about sex crimes and to excise them from our national psyche, once and for all. – Yours, etc,
MARY McAULIFFE,
Women’s Studies,
School of Social Justice,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4
Sharing pain of economic crisis
Madam, – I recently paid €50 for a visit to my GP in order to get an appointment with a medical consultant in Blackrock Clinic for a ten minute visit which cost me €180.
Presently, we are all taking cuts in wages etc. Are these professions excluded from the hardship we are all experiencing? Would they not take a voluntary cut or else could the Minister for Health reduce their fees or put a cap on them?
We must all play a part to alleviate the hardship most of us are experiencing. – Yours, etc,
J MURPHY,
Cork Road,
Youghal,
Co Cork.
Time for the Angelus to go?
Madam, – Robin Bury, the Reform Group (December 12th) claims that the Angelus bell on RTÉ should be removed or replaced.
I, for one, would miss it very much, because it puts my mind into proper perspective after a troublesome or weary day. Prayer, no matter how short, is the most powerful source of energy.
Would the Reform Group not consider removing the violence on numerous television programmes which is ruining the minds of viewers? – Yours, etc,
SHEILA McKENNA,
Ballyroan Park,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.
Madam, – Robin Bury (December 12th) argued that the Angelus should be removed from the RTÉ schedule. He states that it should be stopped because our State has signed up to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and so should remain neutral in such matters.
In reply, I ask, what about the rights of the majority who believe that is an important and beneficial part of our day and wish it to continue?
The Angelus is simply a pause for prayer and reflection. It is indeed a Catholic prayer but surely people of all religions can use this brief moment to reflect and pray in their own way?
This surely cannot threaten any mature person’s sensibilities.
The idea that we should stop broadcasting it because no other public service broadcaster relays it is a spurious argument.
Why can we not be unique and have the Angelus? We should not follow every trend.
For believers, this minute of calm reflection on the good news of our faith is clearly beneficial, coming as it does before the news – which doesn’t cheer any of us up in these difficult times. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MCCARTHY,
Castlemartyr,
Co Cork.
Madam, – It was refreshing to read Aidan Comerford (December 19th) propose that a minute of silence might follow the Angelus so that non-believers could “remind believers what we think about God”.
Most of the time, atheists in Ireland seem very keen to maintain their dogma that belief that there is no God magically does not amount to a faith proposition.
I for one would welcome another minute of silence on the airwaves during rush hour and would appreciate the clarity brought to public discourse by atheists admitting that they do in fact leap into faith when they state that they believe there is no God. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN HARGADEN,
Rockfield Square,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Abbey moving to the GPO
Madam, – For the next Programme for Government, perhaps Fianna Fáil could publish the list of buildings into which they will not try not to put the Abbey.
Instead, they could offer a list of venues for summer rep such as Mullaghmore, Hill or Tara, Rossport and the like. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLINAN,
Essex Quay,
Dublin 8.
On the right track with satnav?
Madam, – Micheal Cullen’s musings on where we would be without satnav (December 23rd) reminded me of several incidents that occurred at the hands of one such device during a three-month posting to Minneapolis.
After three months of right-side driving in the company of Miss Mechanised, insisting in a school-perfectly homogenised, culturally-bastardised way that I should be proceeding to her “highlighted route”, precipice or brick-building not withstanding, and bleating, repeating, entreating, imploring me to turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic, I found myself re-evaluating older ways of navigating. – Yours, etc,
SARAH CLANCY,
Salthill,
Galway.
Corrib gas ‘giveaway’
A chara, – Daniel Sexton’s view that the current oil/gas exploration terms are “quite pragmatic” is untenable (December 16th). We are the only country in the world – with the possible exception of Cameroon – that has proven reserves of natural resources which we continue to give away for a pittance.
Corrib Gas, together with the estimated 10BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent) (estimates per Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan’s own department) off our west coast cannot benefit the State under the Burke/Ahern terms because control and management of the reserves is ceded to the oil companies. It is the oil companies that own 100 per cent of the oil/gas on which they pay no royalties, no special taxes and, if they decide to sell us back what once belonged to us they do so at full market value.
It is every country’s sovereign right and duty to use whatever fiscal tools it has at its disposal for purposes of the common good. In that regard, it was, and remains, open to the Minister of Finance to at any time impose the fiscal regime of royalties. The current licensing terms and conditions are governed by fiscal policy; it is a matter of political will to introduce a robust royalty regime. The 10 BBOE reserves off the west coast, using a conservative value of $60 a barrel, are worth €420 BILLION – a royalty regime of 80 per cent, not uncommon in resource rich states, would yield €336 billion to service the current and future needs of this country’s people.
Is Mr Sexton and his ilk of the view that the oil companies’ shareholders are more deserving of this largesse that the citizens of the producing state?
I, along with so many others, have spent the first decade of the 21st century dealing with the proposed imposition of the Corrib Project which, at local level constitutes environmental injury and, at national level is an economic insult. We have been vindicated by An Bord Pleanála’s letter of November 2nd last which stated that the “safest pipeline in the world” is not that safe after all. We have been proven right in our informed concerns regarding health and safety; it is time we were listened to when we outline the national implications of what amounts to the continued giveaway of our last piece of family silver when it’s most needed.
The capture of our natural resources by Shell, Statoil, etc, was enabled by a crew of fools and/or knaves and would have become a fait accompli in 2003 but for the weltanschauung of those who opposed it. – Is mise,
MAURA HARRINGTON,
Spokesperson,
Shell to Sea,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.
Well I must be off
best wishes John
